First Contacts
by Michael-Harambay
Summary: The transformers' First Contact with humans based on a different perspective. Rated for occasional swearing.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: Beginnings**

Ironhide glared at Soundwave's diminutive morons from his position against the bars. Outside them, Rumble and Frenzy taunted the prisoners as if the midgets themselves were personally responsible for their capture. But he didn't deem the cowardly activity with a verbal response. Fortunately for the cassettes' entertainment, the same couldn't be said of his fellow Autobots.

To pass the time, he fixed some of the slurs' grammatical errors in his head. He reminded himself to remember a few of the more creative insults for later use on Sideswipe, the fragger, and to keep his mind off of more...pressing...matters. Like his current location. If only that idiot Warpath had watched where he was going, instead of driving like a maniac - then he wouldn't be stuck in Kaon. Rumble and Frenzy left, probably to go annoy someone else, and Ironhide weighed the pros and cons before powering down for a couple breems' rest. After all, if he ever got rescued, he had to be ready to haul aft.

Ironhide didn't know what time it was when he woke up. His helm got hit pretty hard during capture, causing his chronometer and scanners to stop working. ' _Ratchet will have to look at that.'_

He was pacing the length of his cell when the profanities increased noticeably. Guards must have come back or something, but he didn't care to find out. Well, he found out anyway when two guards with matching purple paint schemes (' _how cute_ ') stopped outside the entrance to his cell, carrying between them a slumped figure. ' _Or maybe dead figure'_ , Ironhide thought, when the mechs unceremoniously tossed the stranger in with him. The body made a decent 'THUMP' upon contact with the ground.

He could have tried to use the moment to escape, but he didn't have to be Smokescreen to see that the odds against his two armed opponents - both of which had their pulse rifles trained on him - weren't that good. Only after the Decepticon guards moved on did he approach the prone mech. Whoever he was, he was small, possibly a minibot, which was a relief to him. All of the prisoners were unarmed, so if Ironhide's new roommate had any violent tendencies, he would have to be some piece of work in servo-to-servo combat to best _him_.

Curious, the red mech ventured a, "Hey." Nothing. "Hey, mech." Nope. Ironhide lightly kicked him, the bonafide way to get something broken to work. The unknown person groaned and shifted slightly. Finally getting somewhere, Ironhide kicked him again. A cracked black visor looked up slowly, focused on nothing.

That lasted for about .1 astro-seconds, because the next thing Ironhide knew, the stranger was up and putting space between them, giving Ironhide a better view. The figure stared, and Ironhide stared back, momentarily slack-jawed, for different reasons. ' _Who the Pit was_ this _guy?'_

He'd never seen a frame like this before. The small mech was unnaturally thin, even for a minibot, to the point where Ironhide wondered if he even _had_ an alt mode. Forget the alt mode though, his armor was practically nonexistent. Useless. Not to the point of indecency, but it looked exceedingly thin, and was rounder and smoother looking than the bulky shape of his own. The 'bot had shallow lines crossing about him every which way (' _alt mode depressions?'_ ), some in rings that gave his arms and legs a segmented look, and others running upward, downward, or diagonally; many even connected or crossed over in places. Of course, the lines were so thin and shallow as to be unnoticeable unless one was staring at the deliberate looking scratches intently, like he was.

The elbow and knee joints were never completely covered, and what protoform area was covered changed with movements (as all Cybertronian armor did), but that wasn't what made the limbs odd. It took Ironhide a second to realize that it was the fact that neither the arms nor legs had any extra, jutting pieces or spikes that people normally had on their bodies, signalling parts of an altmode or frame modifications. This guy looked a step away from the basic root mode framework before it had upgrades added to it.

' _The frag? Who would ever willingly transfer into such a useless frame? It doesn't seem to have an alt mode, and that armor looks too thin to withstand any real_ _damage! Did the 'Cons strip him of his real armor? Did Shockwave stick him in that frame? No wonder he was taken prisoner, he looks so weak!'_ Ironhide's flabbergasted stare didn't prompt any verbal response for what felt like an uncomfortable amount of time. The visored mech seemed to be sizing him up as well, though the weapons specialist couldn't say for sure because the mech had his battle mask up too, rendering his face expressionless. The stranger broke the stalemate to take in his surroundings. He ignored ironhide while trekking around closed space, still keeping a distance as he tested the integrity of his side of their cell.

"Already checked. There ain't no busting out of here." The mech turned to face him, but didn't reply. Ironhide tried again. "Are you a neutral then? I don't see an autobot sigil." Besides that, neutrals usually had white optics/visors. Though for one to survive this far in the war was difficult. Many neutrals had joined either side's cause as a means of getting energon, resources and, well, not getting shot.

The mech, despite being expressionless, seemed confused by the query. He looked away again after a breem. ' _Maybe I'm not the only one with a helm injury'_ , Ironhide thought. He tried a simpler question.

"What is your designation?"

" **jhghffglkfs** ," the mech coughed. Otherwise he didn't answer.

"Your designation," Ironhide repeated. "what do I call ya?"

By now several of the mechs in the surrounding cells had caught sight of Ironhide's weird looking roommate and were now paying curious attention. There wasn't much to do in a prison. The mech tilted his head in a 'didn't-you-hear-me' kinda way and repeated the strangled coughing noise in his vocalizer.

From _his_ cell across the way, Warpath taunted, "Maybe that guy's as stupid as he looks." Ironhide threw a "Shut up, Warpath" over his shoulder, still pissed at the young warrior. Suddenly the neutral tensed, straightened up, and then cheerily made another weird static sound before turning an abrupt about face and walking to the back of the cell where he sat down with his back against the wall. His legs were somehow folded in front of him, making Ironhide cringe internally. That looked painful. The neutral now watched Ironhide intently.

A few of the watching prisoners commented on the weird angle of his legs in that position, saying things like "what the…."

"that looks painful."

"Who sits like that?"

Warpath openly laughed at the funny 'bot's sudden change in demeanor and yelled, "You're locked in a cell with a psychopath Ironhide!" This time Ironhide fully turned around to tell his subordinate to shut the frag up, but he never got the chance. A loud 'BOOM' echoed through the space, giving prisoners and guards alike pause. Activity restarted itself in an instant, with all the guards demanding over the comms and out loud to know what just happened, and others answering with what amounted to "We're under attack!"

Ironhide noted movement and turned to see his cellmate had jumped up at the noise. He looked frightened. Well, as frightened as anyone without a face could look, Ironhide supposed. Warpath asked, "What was _that_?"

"The calvary, if I had to guess. About time they showed up," Ironhide supplied.

A series of clicks went off, and Ironhide realized it was the cells' locks at the same time that a voice warned over the Kaon prison intercom, "Prisoners escaped. Repeat, cell malfunction, prisoners escaped." With a gleeful "Fraggin' finally!" Ironhide lunged at the cell door, which, unlocked, gave way. He transformed and sped off down the hallway that was becoming crowded as cells became empty.

"We're free!"

"They came for us!"

"Let's kick some aft!"

In the rush of wheels and peds, no one noticed the small mech that hesitantly stepped out of the cell Ironhide had so quickly vacated. Not wanting to be alone in such a hostile place, the mech sprinted after the crowd against his better judgement.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Many in the crowd managed to find (i.e. take) weapons, and a few skilled hackers took the time to hack the locks on their subspace and retrieve their own. Hunter crouched unseen behind a crate on the outskirts of some kind of courtyard or landing pad. The thick of the fighting had moved beyond the area, and the preoccupied robots weren't paying attention to him. There was an abundance of alien ships here, some taking off and others being boarded, and an abundance of aliens, too.

The robots with a red face-like insignia who had previously occupied the cells with him were fighting with aliens that had a thinner purple face on their armor. ' _Two fighting groups.'_ He reflected. ' _It was the purple ones that found me when I crashed here. Wherever here is.'_ Hunter Scott was the captain of the USS Endeavor, a private craft that he and his colleagues sometimes used when their products needed field testing. He was a scientist employed by NASA, and while he enjoyed working on Earth, simply _being_ in space and seeing nature's cosmic wonders was his real passion. He had been testing the ranges on a thermal device in a dual-star system when the ship's instruments went on the fritz. He was honestly still amazed that the ship had remained in one piece while going through that...greeen...portal/vortex thing….

His luck hadn't held out upon reaching the other side - his ship having been greeted by the sight of a moon. A moon which he'd been speeding towards. Of course the ship was broken beyond repair on impact. It was a good thing he had managed to put his space suit on in time; otherwise he would have been claimed by the vacuum.

The sound of gunfire was getting steadily closer again. The man was at a loss for what to do. Should he try and find an alien gun? Could he even figure out how to shoot it? He was next to a courtyard full of ships; maybe he could play Grand Theft Auto and steal one. Then again could he figure out how to fly it? But then where could he go? He didn't even know what area of space he was in, and he doubted the aliens' ships were equipped with the amenities he would require.

For the first time since learning that aliens exist, he was allowing his mind to spiral with panicked thoughts about his _own_ predicament. He had to _move._ Now. Looking around, the captain creeped out from his hiding spot before sprinting like a maniac for the next cover - a tumble of metal/rocks that could have once been a sculpture or a building - about 200 yards away. He made it about ⅘ of the way there when a round of burning hot something grazed his shoulder, close enough to miss him by barely an inch yet singe his suit's armor from the proximity. Hunter fell, scuffing his suit, and got up again, flight or fight instinct taking over. He could have probably made the Guinness Book of World Records for how fast he ran the remaining distance after that. Once behind and hidden by the rocks, Hunter sank to the ground clutching his chest. After an eternity of waiting for his heart to slow down and praying for the gunshots to go away, all was still.

' _I'm doomed, aren't I?'_ The man was laying flat on his back behind the rocks, gazing at the sky above. Actually, there wasn't much of a sky; he could see the planet's moons and what could have been debris clearly. It had been silent for what felt like a couple of hours now. He slowly stood up and made his way down the rubble. He nearly slipped on a piece that thankfully went tumbling instead of him. " **Click-**."

Hunter froze, not recognizing the noise and fearful of what it could be. After a breath holding minute he dared to move again, hopping down onto a dusty white and red metal triangle that jutted up. He couldn't help the surprised scream that was ripped from his throat when the metal beneath him moved. Even as he scurried away the muffled sound came back. " **Click-whirr**." It would seem a mech was buried under the rubble he'd been using as cover. Fantastic.

The wedge he had jumped on earlier shuddered. ' _Am I_ really _about to do this?'_ Hunter thought at himself in dismay. He didn't even know what these robots were. ' _This will probably kill me.'_

But that small, annoyingly positive part of his mind thought ' _Or it could somehow help.'_ Whatever. He had nothing to lose. Maybe if he was lucky this robot would kill him quickly. On that sunny note he began digging.

He removed the smallest stuff first, uncovering more of the what-must-have-been-a-wing that he had stepped on earlier. He had been moving stones for hours when a HUGE hand shot out from them, nearly giving him a heart attack. The thought ' _What have I done, what have I done'_ looped in his mind as the hand set about flailing and scraping rubble off of the body it was attached to. The mech dragged itself out not fourteen paces away, giving the terrified human no chance to hide.

Skyfire finally freed himself from the wreckage of that statue he had crashed into. Falling out of the sky wasn't fun, and he hoped to never be buried like that again. He looked at his arm and grimaced behind his battle mask at the damage. His optics traced over his body, one limb at a time, cataloging the extensive dents (' _Ratchet is going to have to pound the slag out of me to get those out'_ ) and minor leaks throughout it. His scanners were broken, so he couldn't check if any of the dents belaid major internal leaking or not. One look at his wings told him he wouldn't be flying under his own power any time soon. He stood up slowly, carefully, and gazed at his surroundings...

...to immediately zero in on the minibot before him. ' _What the….'_ What kind of frame was _that_? It was unnaturally thin, and it looked _weird._ The little mech stared at him from behind his visor without a word. "Oh, um, hello." He greeted awkwardly. "Thank you for freeing me, you have my gratitude," Skyfire said sincerely. "I am Skyfire. What is your designation?"

His rescuer remained silent. He repeated the query, starting towards him, but quickly stopped when the small 'bot backed up in a panic. The top of his helm barely came up to Skyfire's waist, and he thought the mech was thin enough to be a tall cassette. Perhaps it was his size that was intimidating? He crouched and asked, "Can you hear me?" The stranger made strangled sounds in his vocalizer. " **Jdkf;oefhbdsaf'sifjsdbfoi**."

Hmm, maybe his vocalizer was broken? Or that small dent on his helm could be slowing his processor. Skyfire didn't have much medical experience with cassettes, but he could tell this one was confused and afraid by his body language. And where was his cassette rack? Not one to abandon a potentially injured rescuer, he decided Ratchet or Blaster could have a look at him, and said, "I can take you to a medic who can fix that vocalizer. And those dents. We need to find a ship in working order first."

The small mech just looked at him. The seconds dragged by, and Skyfire was beginning to think that there was something seriously wrong with the little mech before him. He acted like he didn't understand the flyer at all. Skyfire straightened and experimentally took a few steps towards him, and the cassette rushed back as predicted. Faint on the horizon came the drone of seeker engines, letting Skyfire know it was time to go. ' _I don't have time for this. Hope he forgives me.'_

Bracing himself for the reaction, the scientist burst into motion and closed the distance between them in four quick steps, scooping the 'bot up and breaking into a sprint for the nearest ship. The abandoned landing field only had a few left to chose from.

"There is something definitely wrong with you," Skyfire commented over the strangled screeches the mech made, ignoring the cassettes attempts to free himself from the jet's grip. Making it to the first transport, Skyfire threw open the cargo bay door and climbed inside, sliding it shut behind him. He released his unwilling passenger and made his way to the driver's cabin, and within a breem had the ship off the ground and headed towards moon base 2, where he was currently stationed.

Hunter huddled under the giant seats, still freaked out over what had just happened. That white and red robot had seemed sort of friendly at first, but then it just grabbed him! He was more scared by the reminder of how much stronger than him these things could be than by the experience itself. He had no doubt that it could have easily crushed him in its hands if it wanted to. ' _Why didn't it kill me?'_ Red-And-White had gone upfront, which was probably where the steering mechanisms were located. The captain had been on enough ships to know he was on one now, even though in his blind terror he hadn't seen where the robot had dumped him. He could feel the vehicle vibrating under his boots.

Metallic footsteps approached his hiding spot. They stopped. ' _Do I dare look up?'_ Hunter thought miserably. He lifted his head to find the alien kneeling to get a better view. Weirdly, his first thought was, ' _Then who the fuck is flying the plane?'_ Followed by ' _HOLY SHIT!'_

He scrambled away from the looming giant, under the next seat in the row. The alien stayed where it was and emitted a low rumbling noise. ' _What?'_ It tapped the floor in front of it, and seemed to make a 'come' gesture with its hand. The other hand held a strange device that Hunter didn't want anything to do with. Again it rumbled at him in a slightly higher pitch, once more making the 'come here' motion and shifting forward a little. ' _Not going to happen,'_ Hunter thought, moving over another seat.

The robot must not have liked that, because it made a sharp noise and reached under the seat after him. He yelled and kicked at the fingers that wrapped around his leg, but he was dragged out regardless. The robot let go of him momentarily to readjust its hold, flipping him over and pinning him to the floor with its palm on his suit's chest. It rumbled at him softly. After a minute or two Hunter stopped struggling. He was getting tired and nowhere at the same time, a bad combination. He still gripped the hand that pinned him and the two beings entered a staring contest.

Then the alien pointed the device at him and he cringed as much as his position allowed, sure he was about to get incinerated or something. But the wave of light it swept over him didn't hurt. The robot took its attention off of him to read the screen on the device and made a confused beep. For a long moment It gawked at the screen, then sharply looked at him, then at the screen again, then at him and tensed, which made _him_ tense. ' _Yup. I die now.'_

Staring at him like he had grown another head, it slowly set the device on the floor next to it. Its free hand pinned an arm between its thumb and pointer finger. And pinched. Hunter howled, not from pain but for fear that the alien intended to pinch his arm clean off or might accidently tear his suit when there was no oxygen. But it just pinched his suit for a moment before letting the appendage go. For a few terrifying seconds it felt along hit suit, the pressure slightly uncomfortable, like a doctor doing a physical. Then it jerked away abruptly as a chime come from the cockpit, and hesitated before getting up to presumably check on whatever it was. On the way up there it slammed a button and previously hidden parts spiraled out from their creases in the wall to form a door.

It stayed up there for a long time. Hunter was pacing around the 'cargo area' and wondering if the robot was watching him when the vibrations under his feet suddenly ceased. ' _This ship must have landed! But where am I now?'_ Even worse, what would happen to him now? Was he going to be shot, or experimented on, or thrown out the airlock?

The cockpit door opened, spiraling back into the wall. Red-and-White hesitantly stepped through it, approaching Hunter slowly. He noticed that it kept its hands by its sides with the palms facing up. It was talking to him. But Hunter didn't back away, determined to not be a coward in what was probably his last few minutes alive. When it finally got to him it gently wrapped a large hand around his arm and pulled him to the door. Apparently satisfied that he wasn't able to bolt, it heaved open the cargo hold door they had come through. Hunter was pulled after it when it got out, and had to trot to keep up with the giant's long strides. He felt like a little kid forced to hold hands with an adult.

Where were they going?

Skyfire could get in serious trouble for this. Then again, technically there weren't any regulations in the Autobot Code concerning aliens (he would have to ask Prowl later). ' _Aliens!'_ He thanked whatever deity was out there that he had decided to check up on the 'minibot', otherwise that exam with Ratchet might have gotten a little awkward, to say the least. A drive or two had crashed when he realized exactly what he was looking at, or, more importantly, what he was _not_ looking at.

' _Good thing Prowl is so predictable. Most everyone is on shift or at a training exercise, and not many use the back halls of the Science Wing anyway. I shouldn't be seen.'_ He was aware that his 'new friend' was having difficulty keeping up, but he didn't dare slow down while they were in the open. He was nearing the homestretch when he heard the sound of ped-steps angling towards them. ' _No! Who-'_ Perceptor walked around the corner to nearly collide with them.

"Oh, excuse me Skyfire. I did not see you there," he intoned, looking up from the datapad in his hand. His optics widened in confusion when he saw the state of the mech rushing by him, and even more so when he caught sight of the random minibot his friend was dragging by the arm. "What is _that_?!

"Sorry, really busy!" Skyfire quickly replied, shoving the minibot into his lab before following suit and shutting the door behind them. Perceptor frowned. That was weird. But he would have to ask Skyfire later, he had an experiment to complete right now.

In the safety of his lab, Skyfire groaned and leaned against the door. ' _That was close.'_ He knew he would probably have to tell people about the thing sooner or later, but he prefered later. And in a way that didn't lead to mass panic or the little alien's swift termination. He watched the creature warily take in its new surroundings while never facing away from him. Now that Skyfire was temporarily out of danger, his excitement to learn came back with a vengeance.

' _What type of energon does it consume? Does it see colors? Can it do simple math? Is it even that intelligent? Where's it from?''_ Of course it had to be intelligent, given the strange armor it wore. He knew that no Cybertronian had crafted that armor because the hand held scanner had listed its metals as 'unknown', not to mention that it was an unnatural design. ' _How did it get here, and how is it this is the first time I've heard of an_ _ **alien**_ _on Cybertron?_ ' If the Decepticons had had it, special ops would have known about it. It couldn't have just appeared out of nowhere. ' _Perhaps, if they captured it, the 'Cons thought it was a smaller Cybertronian. That armor certainly fooled me.'_

By now _it_ had made a full circuit of his lab and was inspecting the items on a work table. Skyfire was glad that he was more organized than Wheeljack; he could just imagine the dangerous devices and chemicals the alien could get into if it was in the inventor's lab down the hall. Really, he should thank Wheeljack. Working in such close proximity to him meant being relatively isolated: few non-science mechs cared to walk by his lab, even though its force field kept all but the worst explosions confined.

' _Where to start?'_ He had so much to figure out. Not only did he have to establish some form of communication - if he even could - when he was in no shape or fashion trained in linguistics, he had to figure out how to fuel it. What it needed to not offline. While he could always study the alien dead, the opportunity of learning from it alive was of astronomical importance if it was indeed sentient. That was the biggest and foremost problem.

The not-a-mech finished exploring for the moment and awkwardly stood in the center of the lab. Skyfire nervously cleared his vents, feeling he should say something. "Yes, ah, wel-welcome to my laboratory," he motioned the room around them. "This is, um, where I uh, work. I am a scientist." The jet-former pointed at himself before picking up two beakers and miming the action of pouring chemicals to get the idea across. He doubted it did. The thing tilted its head, confused?

Looking at it, Skyfire wondered what the creature looked like beneath that armor. The scanner had found the foreign material to be hollow, which meant it was a suit of some kind. A suit for what? The elements Nitrogen, Oxygen, Argon, and Carbon Dioxide - along with a few trace elements - had also been detected within. Was that the kind of atmosphere on its _home_ planet? Did it just prefer the gases, or require them to survive? What kind of being needed to be surrounded by specific gases to function? Cybertronians didn't; they were quite comfortable in the vacuum of space, and besides, Cybertron's atmosphere was so thin as to be practically non-existent.

' _I could try and recreate the environment in the lab. It might be more open to communication if it was in a more relaxing environment.'_ Yes! Then it wouldn't need that strange armor, and he could learn what it really looked like. It was a start anyway. Happy with the prospect of doing _something_ , Skyfire moved to the lab's environmental control panel and took a few minutes to key in the parameters. He was just finishing coding the lab's explosion-containment field to instead keep in a certain ratio of gases when a furious voice snapped over his comm.

-"Skyfire! The frag aren't you in my med bay right now?! Perceptor said you were back and in bad shape. I suggest you come find _me_ before _I_ find _you_.-

' _Oh yeah'._ Looking over his dented, dusty body, Skyfire sheepishly replied,

-"Will do, Ratchet."-

The mech glanced over his shoulder to see Alien sitting on a table in a weird position with his legs criss-crossed. That looked painful. It was holding one of his datapads and trying to figure out how to turn it on. He hoped that would amuse it until he got back. ' _Actually, better to be safe than sorry.'_ He made a whistling noise at the alien to get its attention, and, doing a doubletake when that actually worked, opened the door that separated a small storage closet from the lab proper. Alien approached him with the datapad nervously, and peered into the space. It tilted its head and made a funny up and down motion with its shoulders, as if to say, "What about it?" Skyfire sighed. Then shoved the alien inside. He could not _believe_ he had just done that.

' _I have an alien locked in my closet,'_ looped in his mind as he left to the sound of banging. By the time he got back the lab's new 'atmosphere' would be in place.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

"All the fragging stupid slag to do, you just had to use Hydrogen!" Ratchet ranted, hands busy rewiring a blackened arm. An equally soot covered rest-of-Wheeljack dared to make direct eye contact with the medic.

"I swear, the safety was _on_." WHACK.

" _Shut up_ Wheeljack," Ratchet snarled. Skyfire sat on a nearby berth, deemed 'able to slagging wait'.

"It isn't as bad as it looks," Wheeljack said, catching the worried expression on the Jet's face. Really, Skyfire was worried that the explosion in Wheeljack's lab might have scared the alien, already trapped in the confines of the closet. ' _But I couldn't just leave it to wander around, my lab isn't alien proof.'_ He would have to work on that.

"You, sit still, and try not to blow up something else while you're at it," Ratchet ordered. He jerked a thumb at Skyfire, "You, over here. What'd you do, demolish a building?"

"Something like that," Skyfire admitted.

Ratchet transformed his hand into a hammer. 'POUND' "So why didn't" 'BANG' "you come in here" 'POP' "as soon as you got back?" 'CLANG" Skyfire swiveled his head to look at the glaring CMO, who had to stand behind him on a berth to reach the dents in his wings.

"I, ah, found...something...that needed my attention at the moment. But it's fine now." He fervently hoped it was fine, though it was probably terrified. He vowed to let the alien out as soon as he got back.

"Oh? And what, if I might ask, is more important than following standard procedures regarding your health?" Skyfire pinched his nose, ' _Damn it Ratchet'_ , and said, "It's actually a ah, pet project of mine, that requires a lot of attention. It's um, a communications device of sorts." Ugh, that sounded lame even to his own audios. ' _Please buy it.'_ Wheeljack piped up from where he was sitting, "Need any help?"

Skyfire dipped his helm, "Maybe later on, but I just got started."

"Don't," Ratchet interrupted. "I don't care Skyfire, but just don't. Let. Wheeljack help. He'll fragging demolish whatever it is." "

Hey!" Said mech yelled, offended.

"You're fine," Ratchet muttered at Skyfire, stepping down to admire his work. "Just for _Pit's_ sake take a shower." Skyfire nodded.

Hunter sat in the closet, wondering in the dark if the alien would come back for him. He didn't have the energy to care too much. His suit was equipped with a waste recycling unit, Oxygen converter, and nutrient injections that could last up to a month in space. And that month was almost up. The air his suit supplied had already become noticeably thinner, and he knew that he had to take it off, soon, or he would suffocate. Every now and then a warning would pop up on the inside of his visor. Like he didn't notice. ' _But how do I know if there's any air out there?'_

He had two choices: suffocate in the suit or suffocate outside it. That stupid part of him that refused to believe he was doomed tried to find any way out. ' _Maybe if the robots kept me alive this long, they set the air inside to accommodate me as well.'_ It was a long shot, but seeing as aliens _existed_ , anything was possible. Sigh. What he was about to do was probably really stupid.

With shaky hands he unbuckled the hidden clasps on the outside of his helmet. ' _Here goes nothing.'_ He held his breath before taking it off, sure he was about to die a horrible Total-Recall-esque death. Nothing happened. Hunter laughed out loud, incredulous that he wasn't dead. "Haha, Yeah!"

He immediately set about removing the rest of his space suit, giddy, and feeling confined in it now more than ever. He'd been 'trapped' in it for a month. The man stood up and stretched as far as the small room allowed. He wished he could see what he looked like. He felt along his face, but he had never been able to grow much facial hair, so it still felt relatively smooth. It felt good to be able to move freely again.

Skyfire did not go to the wash racks. Instead he made a beeline for the lab. Palming open the door he rushed to the closet, hoping his entrapment of the weaker being hadn't hurt their future prospects of communication. He stared, slack jawed, at the sight that greeted him when he unlocked the storage closet.

Curled up in an impossibly bent position on the floor was some… tan and green…thing. Its chest-plates rose and fell in steady cycles as it vented, and there was some kind of fuzzy material on top of its helm, which was buried in its arms. What the frag?

Skyfire must have made a noise, because the creature stirred and lifted its head. Its - ' _were those optics? Yup, definitely optics'_ \- widened, and it snapped to alertness, getting up with surprising speed.

' _Amazing,'_ Skyfire revered, ' _it even has face-plates that look like a Cybertronian's.'_ Like him, the alien had two optics, what was probably an olfactory sensor, and a mouth. He thought the two rounded things sticking out at an angle from its helm could have been audio-amplifiers. Without that weird armor on, its limbs were much narrower than he'd been led to believe.

Its remarkably expressionate face-plate took on a wary, pissed glare. Yeah, if someone locked _him_ in a closet, Skyfire would probably look at them like that too.

"I am sorry," he regretfully informed it. "I did not want to put you in there. But the chance someone would accidentally discover you while I was gone was too great." It barked something at him, then raised the middle digit of its servos at him. ' _I can't wait to learn what that means!'_ Skyfire thought excitedly, thrilled at the communication attempt. Though he kept his face serious.

He backed up to give the creature space, feeling that his proximity was intimidating it to remain in the closet. It shuffled out, still glaring daggers at him. The mech frowned. ' _What to try first? Perhaps reintroductions are in order...'_ At a loss, he gestured himself. "Skyfire." Again, "Skyfire." He then pointed at it, and tilted his head like it had done earlier, as if to say through body language, "And you are…?" The fuzzy lines above its optics furrowed for a second, then rose in what must have been comprehension, because it answered - ' _It answered!'_ \- " **Uh-'err**."

The foreign sounds made no sense to the Cybertronian, who click-whirred a confused, "What?" A few seconds of silence elapsed before it repeated the noise, this time slower and with more pronouncement. " **Unnnn-'urrrrrr**." Then looked at him expectantly.

Skyfire felt silly. There was no _way_ he would be able to say that. He gave it a shot. " _ **Unnnn**_ " The alien bared its denta at him. In aggression? Was that a sign he should stop? He fumbled the word again, " _ **unnnEr**_." The smaller being shook his head, and said it himself. Skyfire tested the foreign word a few more times. " _ **Unn'der**_." 'Unn'der' bobbed his helm at that last one, baring his denta even more. But he otherwise didn't appear angry. ' _The denta thing could have a nonaggressive meaning. Maybe a positive one?'_

Unfortunately that was the moment the lab door opened behind them, halting their progress and silhouetting a fresh-from-the-wash-racks Wheeljack. Skyfire hastily scrambled to his peds to put himself between the alien and inventor and to hopefully block the latter's view. "So I was thinking about what you said in the med-bay about working on a new comm device, and get this, we could add a-HOLY SLAG WHAT IS THAT?!"

' _Frag it all.'_ Skyfire twisted to see that Unn'der had peered around his waist to get a better look at the newcomer. ' _You are an idiot, Alien,'_ Skyfire thought darkly at him. At Wheeljack's shriek and subsequent rifle aiming the smaller biped whipped back behind him with a yelp.

" _NO_ , don't shoot it. Don't _shoot_ mech. I can explain. It can't hurt you, Wheeljack. Lower your gun. You're scaring him, and for frag's sake, close that door."

Wheeljack looked like Prowl right before a crash, but nonetheless stepped just inside the door, allowing it to close. He lowered his gun-arm slightly but didn't retransform it. "Right…." Skyfire said, lowering the arm he had put up at Wheeljack. He hesitated before stepping to the side, once more revealing the alien.

Wheeljack didn't react for a moment. Then he crowed at an nearly un _holy_ volume, "YOU'VE BEEN KEEPING _THAT_ IN YOUR LAB? FOR HOW LONG? WHAT _IS_ IT?" "Wheeljack, quite down!" Snapped Skyfire, grabbing one of the alien's wrists as it tried to bolt from the engineer's hysterics. The inventor looked slightly abashed, but the admonishment didn't slow his progress or enthusiasm as he crossed the room to find out for himself.

"What. The frag." he breathed, volume a bit more appropriate. The flyer hissed distractedly, "Get rid of that," pointing out Wheeljack's still transformed hand. Internally he marveled at how warm and soft the arm he had grabbed was. ' _What kind of material is its frame made of?'_

As soon as the weapon was gone the creature slowed its frenzied attempt at reclaiming its arm. "I didn't have you pegged as a mech that liked pets, Skyfire. Does the commander know you have this...thing...in here? Does _Red Alert_?" Wheeljack babbled.

"No. Not yet anyway. I imagine nobody else knows I have it. And I'd like to keep it that way a little while longer, if you don't mind." Wheeljack looked like he was listening, but he never stopped staring at Unn'der.

"So who built it, or did you? And what…," Wheeljack reached out and poked the creature's middle, "is this material?" The alien screamed and slapped the hand away, leaning as far away from the grey mech as Skyfire's hold on it allowed. Skyfire scowled at his friend, annoyed.

"Stop that! Wheeljack, I don't think you understand. This isn't a pet, it's not even Cybertronian. I didn't _build_ it; I have no idea what it's made of. I'm pretty sure it's an extraterrestrial lifeform of some kind."

Wheeljack jerked his gaze away from the alien to look at Skyfire disbelievingly. "What?! On Cybertron?"

Skyfire smirked, "I believe so. For one thing, it dug me out of some rubble I created when I was shot down in that last mission to Kaon. The Decepticons must have captured it or something, I don't know. Maybe it escaped when we disabled the prison. But I doubt they knew what they had. At first I thought it was either a tall cassette or a short minibot because of the suit it was wearing. Then again, just scan it. Tell me you've ever scanned anything like it." At the prompt, Wheeljack did indeed initiate a scan. The wave of light made Unn'der flinch.

"Whoa…." The engineer ignored the cries Skyfire's alien made when he excitedly reached out to test his scans. But this time Skyfire was the one to slap his hand away. "I said STOP it, Wheeljack. You don't just go around _poking_ people, you're freaking him out!"

At his friend's confused look, Skyfire said, "I just told you it came in a suit. A suit it, or its kind I suppose, must have designed. The metals in it aren't indigenous to our planet or its moons, and making a suit for an alien seems like a lot of effort to go through when you can just put it in a containment unit. I'm telling you, It's intelligent." Wheeljack thought about the statement for a moment.

"You mean to tell me," he began, "that you've been hiding an _intelligent_ _alien_ _life-form_ in your lab for two orns? Why haven't you told anyone? This is _huge_ , Skyfire! This may well be Cybertronian civilization's _First Contact_ with intelligent life among the stars! You should hand it over to the science cast elites. They might be better equipped to study it. You're gonna be famous!

"Wheeljack."

The grey scientist paused at the white's tone. "What?"

"I'm can't just announce this thing to the world." Said 'thing' observed the conversing mechs intently, clearly not understanding a word. "We're at war incase you didn't notice. We don't need such a big distraction in our ranks. People, especially on base, would want to come see it. The _Decepticons_ would want to 'come see it', and I doubt they would leave a good impression. I know Shockwave certainly wouldn't."

Skyfire could just imagine what Shockwave would do to Unn'der if the sadistic scientist got a hold of him. "Plus, It's scared of you, and you're just one mech. A whole base knocking at the door might give it a spark attack, or at the very least make it nervous and hinder communication attempts."

Wheeljack perked up, interested in the idea of talking with a real live _alien_. "Ooh, have you figured out how to communicate yet?"

"Er, no, I haven't. The sounds it makes are completely foreign to me. I don't even know if our languages are mutually speakable."

"You could get Blaster to help you. The new the new Chief Communications Expert. And I know for a fact that he's on base."

Skyfire let out an exasperated vent. "Wheeljack, I can't just let any mech interact with it."

Wheeljack shrugged. "It's not like there's a First Contact protocol for this kind of slag and besides, nobody else knows it's here, so what does it matter?" He gave Skyfire a flat look.

"This kind of thing would be right up Blaster's his alley. Trust me, I know the guy. Just swear him to secrecy or something. You're gonna need more people in on this if you want to be able to talk to it any time soon." The 'if _we_ want to talk to it anytime soon' went unsaid.

Skyfire was about to remind Wheeljack that he didn't have that kind of authority when his comm line crackled to life. ' _Not again.'_ Inferno, a security mech Skyfire had once met briefly, could be heard on the other end.

-"Skyfire, come in Skyfire."-

His spark nearly stopped. How did security know about the alien?! But then Inferno's bored voice droned, -"You're scheduled for this shift. Why aren't you at your post?"-

"Who is it?" Wheeljack whispered, worried.

"Ahhh, I never checked Prowl's base roster after I got back from the Kaon mission with _him_." Skyfire gently tugged the arm he held for emphasis. "Apparently I'm supposed to be on duty right now." Wheeljack brightened.

"I could watch him for you!" Skyfire frowned, causing the other to wave a hand.

"You look like you think I'm gonna dissect it or something. I swear I'll just keep an optic on him."

' _It's not like I have a better option.'_ Skyfire had to reluctantly agree. "If you have to leave or let someone in just hide it in that closet with the suit." With that, Skyfire finally let go of the alien, who promptly ran off to put a work table between itself and Wheeljack.

"The suit?" Wheeljack echoed.

"You'll see what I mean." Heading for the door, Skyfire commed, "Copy that Inferno, I was unaware. I am on my way now."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

"Blaster, you got a breem or twenty?" Said red and yellow mech looked up from his drink to find the wild Wheeljack perched on the stool next to his, far from his natural habitat of the labs.

"I dunno 'Jack, I'm kinda enjoyin' my orn off." Huffer came to stand next to the pair from his side of the bar, but moved on when Wheeljack said he didn't want anything.

"Yeah, well, I think I got something you'd enjoy a lot more than high grade." Blaster snorted. "You could never invent something that's better than high grade 'Jack." As if to prove his point, Blaster took a sip, expecting the grey mech to take the hint and get on with it or leave.

Wheeljack unsubspaced a datapad. "Here. Take a look at this when you get back to your quarters." He lowered his voice, "I don't have to tell you it's classified, you'll understand when you read it. If you want to do it, and I think you'd really enjoy this mission, let me and Skyfire know. You absolutely _cannot_ discuss this with anybody else." That got Blaster's attention. Pfft, Wheeljack giving him a mission?

"Since when were you in special ops?" But he took the datapad and put it in his subspace anyway.

Blaster grabbed his cube and stood up shortly after Wheeljack left. Might as well go take a look, there was a music stick he remembered leaving in his room that he wanted to listen to as well. Walking towards the officer's quarters, he made a mental note to do some more exploring later. Being a recent transfer, he only knew the essentials like the location of the security room, control center, and the training and rec rooms.

' _Aaaand my room'_ he tallied, palming open the door. Eject and Rewind looked up at his entrance, then went back to watching the monitor in front of the couch they sat on.

*-Hey Boss, let me out-*

Blaster's chest plates folded apart, and Steeljaw hopped out to join his siblings in the main room. Blaster headed for his room.

"There you are." Swiping the forgotten music stick off his berth and sitting down in its place, Blaster unsubspaced Wheeljack's datapad. He literally weighed the two options in his hands, but eventually curiosity got the better of him and he booted the datapad up. ' _A linguistics mission, huh? Interesting. And what exactly am I transla-...what the slag?'_

Was this some kind of prank? Perplexed, he refreshed the page. Nope, the text was still there. He tapped the screen to go to the next page, and his jaw dropped. It was a video of...of what, he didn't know. Some...Thing...sat on a lab table, swinging its trods like a sparkling. It was making a noise at Skyfire's prompting, pointing to a datapad the jet held. Skyfire was making choking sounds in return. Wait, no, he was...trying to repeat the creature's noises. ' _Wheeljack wants me to taLK TO AN ALIEN.'_

The door to his room suddenly burst open, and three worried cassettes sprinted in, weapons at the ready.

"What's wrong Boss?" Steeljaw asked, looking for whatever threat had caused the charge of emotion across their bond. Eject and Rewind were behind him. Blaster didn't say anything, still shell shocked at the video of Skyfire trying to an ALIEN.

"Blaster," Eject was saying, coming to stand by the mech's leg. "What is it? _Hellooo_." The cassette knocked on one of Blaster's legs. Rewind jumped on the berth to get more on Blaster's level. *-Blaster! Should I get Ratchet?-* Blaster seemed to shake himself out of whatever trance he was in.

"What? No, sorry guys, I was just, I mean, Wheel-Wheeljck just-" He snapped his mouth shut. Wheeljack had said not to tell anyone. Then again, his cassettes shared a bond with him. He wasn't about to lie to them about the coolest mission ever!

"I, uh, you guys are never gonna believe this. Guess what mission I just got offered!" Confused by their rack's abrupt change in attitude, the small gathering at his peds exchanged glances.

"Are you okay?" Rewind carefully asked. Blaster grinned audio to audio.

"I'm better than okay! I get to translate an _alien language_! WITH a real live _alien_!" When his cassettes didn't reply, he glanced down to see their amused, concerned, and/or disbelieving expressions.

"Blaster...how much high grade did you drink?" Steeljaw calmly inquired.

"Huh? What, no! Here, look at this!" With a flourish he showed them the datapad and hit 'play', enjoying himself as their expressions went from dubious to shocked.

"No way!"

"Whoa!"

"Can I come watch?"

"What _is_ that thing?!"

Blaster reclaimed the datapad and stood up, shooing the mini-mechs out of his room. "I don't think Wheeljack would appreciate all of you coming to watch right now. Maybe you can come with me later…-" The red mech looked at the ceiling in wonder. "...-I don't know."

* * *

Blaster knocked nervously. ' _The datapad did say Skyfire's lab, right?'_ He was jerked out of his thoughts when the door opened to reveal a confused Skyfire.

"You're here early."

"I came as early as I could." Blaster replied easily, wondering by the scientist's tone if he shouldn't have. Skyfire ushered him in.

"Well, I suppose you can start now."

 _Hmm, no alien.'_ He noted, glancing around once the door closed all the way.

"So, uh,...where is it?"

Skyfire deadpanned, "In the closet."

"Excuse me?!" sputtered Blaster.

"He likes to recharge in it. Stay here."

Blaster watched the scientist stride over to the closet, bemused. Skyfire kneeled down when the door opened and reached inside with one hand. After a second he retracted his arm and stood back up, motioning for the alien to come out. What had to be the weirdest thing Blaster had ever seen in his life took a couple of timid steps towards the jet. It looked around and spotted him; Skyfire was quick to block its attempt to dive back into the closet. With its escape route cut off, the smallish creature - really, it was actually a bit taller than his cassettes - turned back around to openly stare at him.

A little unsure, Blaster waved. Skyfire shot him a WTF look, but changed his tune when the thing bared its teeth and actually _waved back_. Blaster grinned. ' _Yeah. This'll be fun.'_ But what he said was,

"Okay, uh, have it sit at the table, or something."

Nodding, Skyfire led/herded it towards a seat at his work table. Blaster carefully took a seat next to it, which almost made it hop up except that Skyfire put his hands on its shoulders. ' _It's so mech like'_ , Blaster reflected. He unsubspaced a datapad to write on and got to work.

* * *

Its designation was _Hunter_. It lived in a solar system with nine planets (from the drawings they'd communicated with), and its homeworld was the third one from the sun. It liked to draw and liked it even more when Blaster drew in an attempt to communicate, knowing as well as he did that he was no Sunstreaker.

It also found the act of subspacing things fascinating. Which probably meant they didn't have that kind of technology yet. Every time he, Wheeljack, or Blaster subspaced or unsubspaced something Hunter would make like he was startled, then pester them to do it again. The being was actually kind of cute in its curiosity. Currently Blaster was sitting across from it with a datapad it had written on, trying to work out the apparently phonetic alphabet its language used.

" **Aheee**." Nope. " **EEE**." No, that was a different symbol. " **AAAAA**." There it was! He smiled when the creature bared its teeth in an alien smile and nodded, satisfied with his pronunciation. Blaster moved on to the next symbol. " **Bayyyy**." That wasn't it. " **Beeeee…-** "

* * *

" **Wire**." Hunter held up another object, a datapad, and said " **I-pad**." He poked around the table of cluttered and miscellaneous objects (courtesy of Wheeljack) for another example, picked something up and sounded out, " **Tape**."

"How's it coming?" Wheeljack asked, entering the lab with another box of random stuff. Blaster had insisted the more physical examples the better. "Excellent," the red mech said. "'Hunter' has identified 1,873 objects so far, next orn I plan to go into actions. Where are you getting all this stuff anyway?"

Wheeljack's fins lit up as he said, "the supply vault. And the medbay. Don't worry, I'm gonna put it all back..."

"Sure…." Blaster drawled, as Hunter selected a pair of wire cutters and said/hissed, " **Scissors**."

* * *

Blaster pressed the button. "Pause." He pressed it again, letting the jumbled Cybertronian music fill the room. "Play." The organic said " **Pause** " and " **Play** " in his respective language, then repeated Blaster's translation. Music still playing, Blaster jumped once in the air and said "Jump." Hunter followed suit.

Trying not to grin stupidly at how ridiculous their actions must have looked, and for some reason enjoying himself immensely, Blaster said "spin" and spun in circles to the beat to get the idea across. Hunter spun around too, though he must have miscalibrated the action because the motion made him dizzy and he almost fell before catching himself. He laughed (it had taken a while to figure that sound out) at his near fall.

Skyfire and Wheeljack chose that moment to enter the lab together, Skyfire having just gotten off shift. They paused in the entrance. Wheeljack took one second to register the loud party music and dizzy alien before ironically declaring, "Blaster, you are the most unprofessional thing I have ever _seen_."

" _What_? This is progress!" Blaster defended. He pointed to the alien, as if to prove it, but Hunter wasn't really paying attention to them. He was bobbing his head to the music and playing with a datapad. Skyfire facepalmed.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

"-And then they _**knocked**_ me out with something, because next thing I knew I was in that _**jail**_ with those other Autobots." Blaster raised his hand, a gesture that the two species had in common. "Define _**Ja-il**_." The red mech said.

"A place where you put people you capture? Same thing as a _**prison**_." Blaster nodded, guessing what jail and prison meant.

"Oh. The Decepticon prison in Kaon. Continue." Hunter shrugged.

"I think you know the rest. I got out when the other prisoners were released, and found Skyfire under that rubble." Skyfire dipped his helm at the mention of his name, sitting to the right of Blaster. An awkward silence fell between the three of them, until Hunter decided to break it by asking, eyes down,

"So...why haven't I seen anyone else? Is there a reason you've been keeping me in this room? What are you, _**um**_ , going to 'do' with me?" Skyfire immediately straightened, and Blaster put up his hands and stuttered "Woah woah, we aren't going to _do_ anything with ya'." Skyfire interrupted him,

"It was not my intention to keep you locked in here indefinitely, but...please understand, you are the first true _alien_ lifeform we - that is, _Cybertronians_ \- have come into contact with. I did not think the others on this base would have reacted well to your presence, especially since we are currently at war. If I had made your presence here known, you would have been given to the Science Cast Elite, or some other group; not to mention you would be a distraction to the troops stationed here."

Blaster snickered. "Yeah. Skyfire didn't think you would be willing to communicate under that kind of pressure. And he wanted to interact with you himself. Just think, how would your people react if you found one of us on your planet?" Skyfire shot Blaster a look and Hunter muttered, "Not very well..." Another silence elapsed.

This time it was Blaster who broke it by brightly changing the subject. "So, what does your designation mean?" The man gave him a flat look.

"It means me?"

"No no," Blaster pressed, "but what does it mean? Why'd you chose it?"

"It doesn't _mean_ anything. Well, it could mean 'hunter', like 'one-who-hunts', but that's just a coincidence. Usually our designations don't have any meaning."

Skyfire looked intrigued. "Then _hunter_ is just a sound you chose to represent you?" The jet asked. Hunter shrugged, the motion foreign to the 'bots (though they could easily guess it was the alien equivalent of a shrug).

"I didn't. My _**parents**_ chose it for me. On my world, the _**parents**_ chose your designation and you usually keep it for life."

"What are _**parent**_ **s** and what if you don't like the designation they gave you?" Blaster asked.

' _How to explain this to alien robots? Do they even have parents, or do they make themselves?_ Hunter thought entertainingly before explaining,

" _ **Parents**_ are the people who make you and take care of you when you're little. And if you don't like your _**name**_ you can just change it." Skyfire looked confused on a number of points, but continued with the thread of conversation at hand.

"On Cybertron, _we_ decide what we want to be called, and it always has a meaning besides being just a designation."

"Yeah." Blaster chimed in. "I call myself 'Blaster' 'cause I love music. And I have wicked aim." Skyfire rolled his optics at his friends not to humble explanation, unaware that both species used the gesture and that Hunter understood it. The alien grinned.

"I wish I could show you the kind of music we have on our planet. But all my equipment and recordings are still with the ship, if they're even in one piece." Blaster brightened at the idea of experiencing _alien_ music, and Skyfire asked more seriously,

"Do you know where your ship crashed?"

"No." Hunter said dejectedly. He tried not to think about his ruined ship too often, or that without it he might never get home.

Suddenly alarm klaxons sounded, making Hunter Jump. Blaster jumped up too, and was out the door in astroseconds, throwing a "gotta go!" over his shoulder.

"What is it?" Hunter asked Skyfire. The big mech didn't respond for a while, probably on his comm, but then abruptly said, "It would appear we have intruders. In fact, they are rather close by. You may wish to put your suit back on, I cannot guarantee the integrity of the force field that I programmed to maintain this environment until the situation is under control."

Though precise in his words, Skyfire's clipped tone let on to the urgency of the situation. Hunter wasted no time in running to the closet and donning his space suit. When he came back out again he saw that Skyfire had transformed his arm into a cannon.

"We cannot stay here. Follow me"

Leading the way, Skyfire led the suited up alien through a maze of hallways. ' _How big do these mechs get?'_ The man wondered, eyeing the ceiling far above them. From behind them blaster fire could be heard, loud and approaching. In the back of his mind Skyfire hoped the Decepticons wouldn't completely destroy the lab in his absence.

Many soldiers passed them in the halls, no doubt heading to the battle, and Hunter's strange frame garnered more than a few looks. Thankfully no one stopped them or took the time to scan him. They managed to make it to a turbolift that would take them to the lower storage levels, where hopefully Hunter could hide until Skyfire could figure out how to get him back to the lab unseen. The lift stopped several floors above their destination, letting a few mechs on. Skyfire had Hunter positioned between him and the lift's clear wall, mostly obscuring the human from view. If Inferno noticed the tiny bot, he didn't say anything. After the mechs got off and they were once more alone, Hunter said,

"Wow."

"What?" Skyfire asked, turning to look at him.

"I didn't realize how big this base was." Hunter said, motioning to the view the lift's glass walls offered. Skyfire smiled sadly. If this impressed the alien, how much larger would a major city like Iacon seem to him?

When they got to the storage units, Skyfire carefully selected one that looked to be unused and palmed open the door.

"Hunter," he said seriously. "Stay hidden behind those cubes until Wheeljack, Blaster, or I come get you. I have to help with the defense grid."

"...Okay." Hunter agreed, not at all happy with the prospect of being left alone in some strange storage room to rot.

The battle lasted for much longer than Skyfire had anticipated. By the time it was over and the remaining 'Cons had been sent packing, most of the base - including the science wing - had been rendered utterly unusable. Luckily, the Autobots had only suffered minimal casualties.

Skyfire was helping Cliffjumper limp into the medbay, the white mech supporting most of the red's weight, until First aid came and took over for him. Exiting the med bay he headed for the labs. Only to realize, when he got there, that there _were_ no labs. Their enemies had made thorough work of the area.

Perceptor was pulling any surviving equipment and chemicals he could find into the hallway outside of _his_ lab. He looked up at the jet's approach.

"Good to see you are still in one piece." He offered amiably. "Did anything survive from your laboratory? Most of my research was already saved, but I had sensitive materials in there that are no longer functional."

"I haven't been able to check yet." Skyfire replied. But upon inspection, he found that his lab, too, was in ruins.

It didn't matter, because later in the orn Skyfire learned of the evacuation. They didn't have the resources to repair the base right now, which would leave them vulnerable to another Decepticon attack. The Prime wanted them to be restationed in Iacon, or at least temporarily stationed in Iacon until further reassignment. How the flying _frag_ was he going to hide Hunter in the most heavily monitored Autobot base on the planet?! Maybe he should just come clean.

Little did he know that the situation was currently being taken out of his hands.

Hunter sat with his back to the crates that hid him. It had been hours since Syfire had abandoned him in here. At the sound of the door opening, the man sat up, but otherwise didn't move. Voices he did not recognize drifted to where he sat frozen in the realization that it wasn't Skyfire.

"Yeah, but he said everything has to go." Someone was saying.

"What about those cubes? They seem terribly outdated."

"Yeah, help me carry them."

Hunter stood up just as two mechs rounded the stacked storage cubes.

"Who are _you_?" The yellow minibot several heads taller than him asked while transforming his arm into a gun of some kind. Hunter didn't respond.

The mech's blue companion said, "Easy 'Bee, I think you're scaring him. It's just a cassette." He came closer.

"Hi there! I'm Bluestreak. Are you one of Blaster's?" It wasn't the words that were throwing Hunter off. It was the speed. Like the difference between a high school Spanish teacher talking to a student and talking to a native speaker. He just couldn't quite catch what they were saying.

"He asked you a question." Bumblebee snapped, feeling that something was 'off' with this stranger. He commed security.

-This is Bumblebee, we have a possible 'Con hiding in the lower level storage units.-

Red Alert answered him promptly and hysterically, - _What_?! I'm sending backup!-

Two security mechs Bumblebee didn't personally know eventually walked in, gaining the smaller bot's immediate attention. When he failed to answer their queries as well, they agreed he wasn't a physical threat but that they had to take him to the brig anyway. Except the mech started freaking out when they tried to take him, and they ended up having to drag him kicking and screeching down the hall. Bluestreak watched them leave.

"What a weird little mech. Do you think he's a 'Con cassette like with Soundwave's crew?" He asked Bumblebee. Bumblebee shrugged. "Jazz will find out."


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Hunter was bound to his seat, the metal of his suit somehow magnetized to the chair. The door to his cell opened, and a red mech he recognized waltzed in. Where was Skyfire? The stranger (who obviously didn't recognize him) set the datapad he'd been holding on the table and eyed him wearily. Finally he said, "We can do this the hard way or we can do this the easy way, ' _Con_."

Of course, what he said went mostly over Hunter's head as he was talking way too fast for a beginner in Cybertronian. Hunter tilted his head.

"You're one of Soundwave's, aren'tcha." The mech accused, completely right to think that given the rarity of cassettes these orns and the fact that Soundwave had been seen at the recent battle. Still Hunter didn't understand. ' _Sound-what?'_

He jumped when a hand slammed on the table as its owner growled, "I asked you a question cassette, and you better answer me."

Hunter said, "wh-at", but the slow question only seemed to make his captor angrier. A red fist punched his helmet, snapping Hunter's head to the side with its force.

"I ain't in the mood for games."

"Wh...aaat….games?" Apparently that was the wrong answer too, because the mech snapped,

"How did Soundwave gain the access codes to the base shields?"

Hunter groaned, his neck feeling sore from the punch. Something about codes? He flinched when the red mech moved, but the mech was just pulling something out of his subspace. He slowly set a metal rod on the table for Hunter to see, and smiled in a way that definitely wasn't nice. "Last chance. How did your cassette rack get those codes?"

Hunter tried again, "Don't...kn-ow...what you're...ta-lking...about." the red mech shook his head.

"I warned ya."

Then he picked up the stick and pressed a button on his end, the lowest setting, making the other end crackle blue with energy. Hunter's eyes widened behind his helmet at the realization of what was about to happen.

"N-ooo!" he wailed and shrunk back as much as his magnetic restraints would allow. Ironhide scowled.

"Come 'ere you coward."

Hunter howled and thrashed in his chair when the electricity surged through him. Ironhide took a step back. "The codes." Hunter didn't even hear him in his agony, and screeched when the red mech shocked him again.

"For one of _Soundwave's_ , you're a terrible actor. For your information it's on the lowest setting you glitch."

"...Skyfire…" The human whimpered, wishing the he were here.

Ironhide paused. He couldn't have heard that right. Skyfire gave them the codes? He released the magnetic restraints and grabbed the cassette by it's neck cables, lifting it off the ground, and leaned in close. "What did you say?" He snarled menacingly.

The little mech clawed at the servo holding him and whined "...Skyfire..." again, at the same time that the door behind the pair opened to admit a peeved Inferno.

"Ironhide! How many times do Prowl and I have to tell you to leave the prisoners intact? Cassettes obviously have a lower pain tolerance level. If you fry his circuits too much, even Jazz won't be able to get anything out of a hack."

Ironhide didn't know if he should be amused or annoyed that security had been watching him through the cell's hidden cameras. Crossing his arms, he countered, "The least this no good skidplate could do was be a better actor. I mean come on, I wasn't even on a roll yet." Said skidplate groaned behind him, having curled up into a ball after being unceremoniously dropped.

Inferno went over to the prisoner and kicked him lightly.

"Please get up." Ironhide snorted at the ingrained 'please'. If ever there was a word not in a Decepticon's vocabulary, it was ' _please'_.

When the smallish mech didn't respond, Inferno leaned down and and rolled him over, the action still not really eliciting any response.

"Way to go Ironhide, you broke him. Soundwave's going to be pissed."

Inferno scanned him, trying to see how badly the mech's processor, and the valuable information it likely contained, was damaged. Huh. His scans were coming out weird. The mech's armor wasn't forged of any familiar material, and according to his scanners it was...hollow? And something was inside….

Inferno backpedaled away from the Thing faster than you could say "Megatron's fusion cannon". Alarmed, Ironhide demanded, "What?!"

"Ironhide, restore magnetic restraints." Something in the security 'bot's tone brooked no argument. Ironhide grabbed the unconscious mech's wrists and bound them to the chair, seeing as an unresponsive person couldn't well sit in it.

"What's wrong?" He asked. But Inferno shook his head.

"We need to speak with Prime and Red Alert. Now. Let's go."

"..Okay?" Ironhide said, confused as to why Inferno wouldn't just tell him whatever it is now but not about to stop him given the look of pure horror he was giving the cassette. The door closed behind their retreating backs.

* * *

Skyfire felt unease settle in his spark. Hesitating in front of the meeting room he'd been ordered to attend for reasons as yet unknown, he cycled once before walking into the automatic door's range. And immediately wished he hadn't.

At his entrance everyone at the table turned to look at him. Prime, talking softly with Ratchet, leveled him the thousand yard stare while Ratchet looked unimpressed. Beside them Prowl used the moment to snatch back a datapad Jazz had been doodling on. Perceptor looked especially...disappointed in his colleague, standing behind Ratchet. Though maybe Ratchet should have been paying more attention to Red Alert, because the Chief Security Director looked fit to explode.

This. This would not end well.

"Good evening Skyfire."

"Prime" Skyfire acknowledged, still unsure as to his purpose was here but beginning to guess. Ironhide decided to get to the point. "Care to explain the presence of...whatever that _thing_ is?"

"You mean the alien?" Skyfire inquired innocently, feeling sick.

"Yeah." Ratchet grunted. "That."

Across from the medic, Jazz asked, "Exactly how long were ya plannin' on keeping something like that a secret?"

"I wasn't originally planning to… "keep it a secret. I thought it was a cassette when I first encountered it on my way back from the mission to kaon, and was already en route to base when I discovered it was not, in fact, a Cybertronian."

Red Alert interrupted, "Then why the slag didn't you tell us?!"

That was a good point. "If word got out, the base personnel would have been distracted, possibly hindering communication attempts, and the Decepticons would have undoubtedly learned of his presence. I did not want to jeopardise First Contact with an intelligent alien species like that."

His somewhat sound explanation dissipated some of the tension in the room.

"And how far did you get in communicating with it?" Red Alert asked. The question made Ironhide look distinctly uncomfortable.

"He is able to understand simple conversation if the words are spoken slowly. What happened," Skyfire said at Ironhide and Inferno's expressions, "Where _is_ he?"

"In the brig. Security found it after the attack and assumed he-it was an infiltrator. Don't worry, Ratchet and Perceptor did the necessary repairs."

Skyfire would have gone pale if he wasn't already white. Or a robot. Repairs? What had they done to the little alien that required repairs? Did those two even know _how_ to do proper repairs on an organic? He could only imagine how scared his friend was right now, having never met anyone other than him, Wheeljack, and Blaster. And a bunch of Decepticons when he was first caught, but he didn't like to talk about that a lot and they knew better to ask. Prime took him out of his thoughts when he said,

"Do you have any idea how _serious_ this is? If word got out? While there is no specific scenario for this, we have a chain of command for a reason. However, seeing as the alien might be more comfortable around you, I am assigning you and Perceptor to studying it. Perceptor, you may bring whoever you need onto the team. Skyfire, who else knows?"

Not wanting to get his friends in trouble but faced with his Prime, he truthfully admitted,

"Just Wheeljack and Blaster.'

"I KNEW IT!" Ratchet exploded, making everyone jump, while Red Alert whispered "It's a conspiracy!" not so subtly to Prime.

"That fragging glitch has been avoiding me and not blowing anything up in orns! Fragging-yellow plated-glitching son of a-motherboard fragging-..." Jazz mouthed 'Blaster' over the din at Prowl, who just shrugged, not expecting the rowdy comms mech to be involved. Ironhide quieted everyone down again, and Prime outlined that he expected ornly reports on the alien, its condition, and any information it gave them. If Skyfire didn't know better he would have said Jazz looked disappointed; but then again he _was_ the head of special ops - his clearance trumped them all, minus Prowl and Prime. He could waltz in on Hunter whenever he liked.

The meeting was called to a close, and Skyfire found himself walking with Perceptor towards the brig without a word. It wasn't that he had hid one of the greatest scientific breakthroughs of their time from his peer...it was just that he had, you know, hidden one of the greatest scientific breakthroughs of their time from his peer. He hoped Hunter was alright, and would forgive him for letting whatever had happened happen.


	7. Chapter 7

_Swish_

The door to the second cell he'd been stuck in since winding up here opened, but Hunter didn't bother to look up.

' _Go away_ ,' he thought.

Of course, doing so meant that he couldn't see it was Skyfire (along with a worried looking Wheeljack and a miffed Perceptor) who had entered. Skyfire gave the human's mesh bandages a critical glance and Wheeljack spun on Perceptor. " _Where is his armor_?"

"Being repaired by you?" Perceptor answered confusedly. The microscope was aware that Ratchet had given the exosuit to Wheeljack for repairs. What was Wheeljack talking about?

"No no," Wheeljack clarified. "I mean, why isn't he covered up?"

Perceptor raised an optic ridge. "Is it supposed to be? It does have dressings for its burns. I am sure we can procure a thermal blanket if you think the brig environment is set at too cold a temperature."

Wheeljack gave Perceptor a flat look, feeling the shame on Hunter's behalf. "You left him _**naked**_ in here for an orn? And while you were _doing repairs_?" He doubted that had gone over well.

Perceptor wondered if ' _naked'_ was a word from the alien's language. It must be. Internally he brightened at the thought of learning to use some of its language like Skyfire and Wheeljack obviously had. "My apologies, but, what is the problem?"

Wheeljack shared a look with Skyfire as the jet unsubspaced a thermal blanket, not sure if he could explain the concept of ' _clothes'_ to Perceptor as well as Hunter had explained it to them. Human's had a weird concept of modesty.

"It's a...cultural thing. Not wearing any armor around others is shameful among his people."

Perceptor frowned. "There was some finer armor - if you can call such flimsy material armor - underneath the exosuit. Surely it can be made to understand that we had to remove the material in order to repair the electrical burns to its softer protoform."

Wheeljack crossed his arms. "Considering the reason for the burns, it might be seen as adding insult to injury."

Disregarding the pair behind him, Skyfire kneeled down next to Hunter and draped the blanket over him. "Hunter?"

If he was heard he was also ignored.

" _Hunter_." Skyfire said more firmly, gently reaching out and shaking him. Why wasn't he acknowledging? Sighing, Skyfire delicately gripped one of Hunter's arms and pulled it away from around his trods. "Hunter, look at me."

Hesitating, Hunter peeked up at whatever robot had moved his arm, thinking he recognized the voice. ...Skyfire? Turning his head a little more he saw that it was indeed the huge robot whose lab he had been living in. Then he recognized the microscoped mech standing behind Skyfire, and snatched his arm back so he could go back into his defensive huddle.

"Calm down Hunter." Soothed Skyfire (in English). "He didn't mean to hurt you. No one's going to hurt you. You're safe now - do the burns still hurt?" Really, Skyfire couldn't do anything if the organic was still in pain (he seriously doubted pain receptor inhibitors would work on a nonmechanical being). He just wanted to keep the alien talking. It would help in regaining his trust if Hunter would talk to him. He hoped.

Shuffling under the blanket, Hunter muttered quietly, "A little...they took my clothes."

"I'll get them back." Skyfire promised. In the background, Perceptor looked to Wheeljack, unable to comprehend what Skyfire was discussing. "What is he saying?"

Unfortunately his words drew the alien's attention back to him, which must have been a bad thing if the way it tried to press further into the corner was any indication.

" _It's okay._ " Skyfire quickly reassured, sitting down on the floor in front of Hunter and conveniently obstructing his view of Perceptor. Skyfire commed him:

-I think it would be better if you left for now. He is not going to relax with you in here-

Perceptor nodded. -Very well-

When the lab door closed behind him, Skyfire said "He's gone, okay? You need to calm down. No one here's going to hurt you." Wheeljack finally ambled over, careful not to invade Hunter's personal space. "Yeah," he said. "Nobody meant for you to get hurt."

Resting a servo on the smaller human's shoulder, Skyfire apologized, "I am truly sorry for what happened - I wouldn't have left you alone if I'd thought you could have been mistaken for an enemy, and I see now that it was foolish. Please forgive me."

Slowly, Hunter broke his staring contest with the floor to look up at them. "I...understand."

Skyfire certainly hoped so. But he would be doubly foolish to simply take the affirmation at face value. He could imagine how intimidating the alien's situation must be, and that Hunter could just be agreeing because he felt threatened by them and by what he thought they might do if he said otherwise. The sensitive receptors in his servo could pick up the organic's fast pump rate.

An awkward silence descended on the trio for a minute.

Hunter was actually the first to break it, asking, "So...now what? Am I going back to your lab?" Really he was fishing for what they planned to do with him now that the human was out of the bag.

"Ah, erm, no - unfortunately, my lab was destroyed during the attack."

"Don't feel too bad for him, mine was too." Interjected Wheeljack humorously.

"Then where…?"

"Oh, in fact, the entire base has been somewhat...compromised...by the damage from the battle." Informed Skyfire. "We are to ship out to Iacon next _or_ -sorry, the day after tomorrow. The mechs down there are already setting up a proper environment for you. Don't worry, what happened earlier will _never_ happen again." Skyfire sounded darkly sure of that.

Hunter looked back down at the floor. He didn't really have a choice but to go with them. And he wouldn't admit it, but the little episode had left him wondering if maybe these Autobots weren't so different from the Decepticons who had captured him when he first arrived in this crazy world.

* * *

Skyfire lead the way to the shuttle, and Hunter kept his focus on the stiff way the jet carried his wings. What was bothering him? They were officially leaving for Iacon, a base that was according to everyone else much more fortified than this one had been. If anyone should be nervous, it should be _him_ \- which he definitely was.

Perceptor wasn't with them. The red mech was needed to help shut down the lunar base power grid, and he would catch a different shuttle to Iacon with Ratchet. Good riddance was all Hunter had to say about that. He didn't think he could forgive the mech for restraining, stripping, and 'repairing' him after Ironhide's little interrogation, even if the scientist's intentions had been pure. The terror and humiliation he'd felt were still too fresh.

Blaster was busy coordinating something or other involving the evacuation, but at least Wheeljack was here too, walking directly behind him and likewise silent. No one had spoken since leaving the lab, and Hunter could somehow sense the mood of the group was not one for small talk. Four security mechs marched behind and beside them, making the man feel like a criminal being lead to court. He wondered if the guards knew he wasn't a Cybertronian since he was wearing his newly repaired exosuit (courtesy of Wheeljack).

Through its helmet he observed the ship they boarded, a small, sleek silver craft with four wing-like protrusions. The inside had 3 rows of 4 mech-sized seats on each side that lead up to the cockpit, in which two more mechs he didn't recognize sat fiddling with fancy control panels and various glowing screens and buttons. Interestingly the human noted what looked like a steering wheel on the left side. And what did all those different buttons do? He imagined himself running up front and pressing as many as possible like a little kid, the way perfectly sane people sometimes fantasize the 'what if' of their situation knowing they would never do whatever stupid thing they were thinking about.

Something tapped his shoulder, and Hunter stopped his staring contest with the cockpit to look at Wheeljack, who motioned him to the seat next to Skyfire. Wheeljack then sat down beside him, effectively sandwiching him between the two familiar mechs. His recent adventures with close quarters being what they were, he didn't know if he should feel trapped or comforted.

"Everybody in? We should arrive at Iacon within the joor, but it may be a bumpy ride." One of the pilots announced. To his secret satisfaction Hunter realized he'd understood what was said, even though it had been said at normal conversational speed and not specifically slowed down for him.

The ship vibrated with the takeoff, and Hunter gripped the edge of his seat. Hopefully these Autobots were better pilots than him. Hmmm. Did driving a ship make them Auto-pilots?

Much to Hunter's eternal disappointment there were no windows to watch their descent to the planet through, so he just awkwardly sat there and didn't talk to either Skyfire or Wheeljack. Skyfire was concerned with Hunter's silence. Wasn't the alien even a _little_ curious about the ship? Why was he being so quiet? He didn't yet know that humans were pretty adept when it came to picking up on the general mood.

-Hunter's being pretty quiet.- Wheeljack said, using his short range internal comm to privately comm Skyfire.

-Agreed.- Skyfire sent back. But neither felt like striking up a pointless conversation with the already stressed alien.

Despite there being nothing to look at and no one to talk to (at least, that he wanted to talk to at the moment), the trip went by quick. Faster than Hunter would have expected the rumble of touching down echoed through the hull.

 _Are we there yet?_ The man thought amusedly at Skyfire. Must be, because Wheeljack was standing up. "That wasn't too bumpy a flight." The finned mech commented amiably.

Their security escort exited the ship first. Hunter followed Skyfire down the short ramp, nearly tripping when he caught sight of the landscape around them. Well, the landscape beyond them. The circular landing pad that lead to an entrance to the sprawling base wasn't nearly as eye catching as the shiny, impossibly tall structures he could make out in the distance. The buildings must have been thousands of meters tall. They reminded him of plants that haphazardly grew upward toward the sun, intertwined and entangled as the forest grew. Except the forest in this case was city. A fucking big ass _alien_ _robot_ city. The sun beat down on them, but the solar charging sensors on his suit detected them as being weak, like it was perpetually 5 p.m. here. It occurred to him that he was now stepping onto another planet, the robot's _homeworld_.

"What?" Skyfire said, seeing the organic paused behind him.

"Nothing." Hunter said simply, tearing his eyes away from everything to catch up to Skyfire so they could continue.

The group made their way to the entrance the path from the landing pad lead to. For such a huge base the door on this part of the building(s) seemed inadequately small. Distantly Hunter noted everything was made of metal - the ground, the roads, the ship, the base exterior, even the _people_. It felt...synthetic. Contrived. Of course Hunter would never tell any of the aliens something so insulting. One of the security mechs typed in an access code on a keypad, and the circular, gunmetal grey door slid into the wall with a soft hiss of hydraulics. Hunter craned his neck to watch the pieces furl back into a door behind them, and got the urge to make it open and close again just so he could watch. What a needlessly complicated door.

The hallways here were more dimly lit, or maybe just seemed that way because they were painted dull brown compared to the steel grey of the lunar base. Various mechs about various tasks passed their little formation. More than one gave the group a critical glance, but no one said anything. (Hunter was unaware, but the security mechs had been given a signal to put in their EM fields that basically told everyone else to mind their own business, this involved Prime's orders and was to be uninterrupted. In fact, Jazz had planted agents to act as the security detail to ensure a smooth delivery of the package, though only he and Prime knew they were his mechs and not grunts sworn to secrecy.)

"This is the Science Wing of Iacon base." Skyfire told Hunter when they turned a corner. "Chromedome and Velocity are waiting to meet us in lab 13, where you will be staying."

 _Who were "Velocity" and "Chromedome"_ Hunter wondered. But aloud he said "That's unlucky" without really thinking about it.

"What's unlucky?" Wheeljack piped up.

"Oh uh, nothing. It's a human superstition - 13's supposedly a bad number."

Skyfire's wings twitched. "How can a _number_ be bad?" He said.

Hunter shrugged, the motion diminished by his exosuit. "It's just considered unlucky for some reason. I didn't mean that though - I don't actually think this lab is unlucky. Uh, just, just nevermind."

"Nevermind?" Skyfire echoed.

"It's a phase for 'forget about it' or 'pay no attention.'"

They stopped talking and walking in front of another circular door with glyphs on it that must've represented 13. It too swirled into the wall when Wheeljack pressed his palm onto a panel and Hunter subconsciously stuck closer to Skyfire as they entered. The security detail didn't follow them inside (actually, two of the mechs remained just outside to guard the entrance to the lab itself).

A green femme introduced herself as Velocity, and the blue mech beside her introduced himself as Chromedome. They greeted Skyfire and Wheeljack warmly, obviously knowing each other, then Chromedome said, "Hello **Hun'der**. Welcome to Iacon base." His words were purposely slow so as to get his greeting across, even if his pronunciation of Hunter's name was a bit off.

"Hello." Hunter said, not knowing what else to say. Behind Chromedome Velocity had literally whipped a datapad out of thin air to scribble something on it before subspacing it again just as quickly, like he wouldn't notice if she did it fast. Hunter stuck out his hand to shake hands, but when the blue mech in front him made no motion to take it he awkwardly put it down.

- _Pssst_ You were supposed to _shake_ his servo, it's what **humans** do when they first meet each other. It's a gesture that figuratively shows you're holding no weapons and therefore are a friend.-

Wheeljack obnoxiously commed Chromedome. The inventor lol'ed over the comm at Skyfire when the blue scientist made a 'oh no' expression and hastily amended,

"My apologies, I was not briefed in **human** greetings." He quickly snatched Hunter's hand and gave it a hard shake up and down. Hunter made a pained expression behind his helmet, glad he was still wearing it. _Not so hard_ he mentally hissed. He again noted that Velocity was writing something on her datapad. _That's going to get really annoying really fast._

"Come, let me show you the facilities we have set up." Chromedome offered, mercifully releasing his hand to beckon him forward. "You can take your suit off in here. I believe you will find the temperature quite comfortable. Over here is the…-"

Skyfire elbowed Wheeljack once Velocity and Chromedome were distracted with showing Hunter the accommodations they had set up.

"That wasn't funny. He could have broken Hunter's arm he was shaking it so hard."

"Ha, that was hilarious." Wheeljack chuckled.

Skyfire pinched the bridge of his olfactory sensor. "Just watch what you tell him, you know he can be a bit...over excited when it comes to interesting projects."


	8. Chapter 8

Part 2: Heirs

"It must be broken or something." Vigil muttered, inspecting the circular device held in his thin digits. The room's overhead lights reflected off its gleaming surface and the archaic glyphs that decorated it.

No one else was in the underground room. Dominating the small space were shelves filled with pieces salvaged from destroyed museums, taken from now deactivated senator's private collections, and even 'borrowed' from the Hall of Records (though the Hall still stood intact in Iacon, guarded by the Autobots and that old exhaust pipe Alpha Trion). On the table from which Vigil had picked up the disk-like object were old, _original_ transcripts, each worth a fortune in their own right.

 _A_ _shame Alpha Trion sided with the Autobots_ , Vigil thought. They certainly could have used his help in translating these instructions. For instructions they were. Even before the war Vigil had been zealous in his studies, and now that his experience could make a difference he threw himself into his work.

 _Yes, this damned war. If there's a chance to stop those madmechs, this is it._ They had already wasted one chance - for some reason the machine had failed the last time. But this time they would get the help they - no, _Cybertron_ \- needed. He was sure he and his fellows had deciphered them correctly.

"Vigil, it's time. Come up." Blacklight called from atop the stairs. Vigil nodded to himself and set the artifact down before standing. He pushed his chair back under the disorganized table and headed up. It was time.

The stairs lead to a thin hallway that connected to many more like a maze, and eventually he entered the fairly large building's main hanger. It was small as far hangers went, but the neutral settlement only had 70, maybe 80 people tops, and only 3 ships to house. There was ample room for the Bridge Vigil and his team had reconstructed, so simple yet complicated in its design that it was processor numbing to think that such a thing could be invented, and the welcoming committee (himself, the other project leaders, and a Bridge operator).

Vigil nodded at Shortcut as he entered and made his way to the back, where everything was set up and ready to go. He then stood in his prearranged spot, unsubspacing his gift. A red energon crystal the size of his optic and smoothed to a round circlet, it was one of the rarest minerals on Cybertron (or, you know, the universe in general). What it was worth would make the richest Prime do a doubletake.

Blacklight and Shortcut likewise held gifts of their own to present, and stood in their spots like Vigil, a semicircle of three, waiting. Vigil canted his yellow helm at Moonracer, who took the motion as a sign to begin because she then announced in a serious monotone, "Setting our coordinates. Space-Bridge ignition in five..four..three..two..."

A beautiful swirl of teal energy lit up their expectant faces with an eery glow. Same as it ever was. Last time they tried there had been no discernible results other than the light show. But unlike the last time they tried, this time a shape, (no, a shadow?) was materializing in the green vortex. It...it was working? It was working!

Even Moonracer, from her place at the controls which were on a raised platform that connected to the Space Bridge by various tubes and wires, wore a look of utter bewilderment. She had never really believed they would summon anything other than the bright display, and had helped with the project because of her technical knowledge and the fascinating reverse engineering side to it.

What they could make out among the swirling energy was a mechanoid shape similar to their own frames. Then the Bridge was powering down (it required a lot of energon to run, energon the settlement didn't really have to spare, so Moonracer preset it to only last twenty astroseconds). With the obscuring screen of light gone the figure before the four of them was revealed.

Shortcut let out an reverent breath and immediately took a knee. Beside the grey and orange minibot Blacklight just stared, slack jawed, at the little being, while Vigil himself flared his yellow armor out of nervous excitement (or maybe fear or confusion, or all three). What...what was _this_ thing? An Ancient? Or something else, a messenger perhaps? It looked rather small and frail, nothing like he imagined their wise and mighty predecessors to be.

Leah had a moment of clarity in which she noticed the strange robots, her metallic surroundings, and the way her shaking body tingled from that fluctuating green... _stuff_ that had suddenly enveloped her. Then the lack of oxygen started making it hard to breath, and she blacked out.

* * *

I'm back! Sorry this update took so long, but I finally found a direction for this story to continue in. I'd love to get comments/reviews!


End file.
